By Caroline Brouwer, Vice President, Government Affairs
In a short-sighted move that betrays the wishes of the majority of Nevadans, the Trump Administration officially proposed legislation that would effectively remove more than one million acres in Nevada from the National Wildlife Refuge System.
Mojave Kingcup Cactus (Echinocereus triglochidiatus ssp. mojavensis) by J. Contois / USFWS
Desert National Wildlife Refuge, the largest national wildlife refuge outside of Alaska, provides pristine desert habitat to the Desert bighorn sheep and the endangered Desert tortoise in southern Nevada. At 1.6 million acres, this refuge covers six mountain ranges and attracts recreationists from all over the country. Proposed as wilderness, this desert ecosystem is rich with life.
Since the 1940s, the Air Force has functioned on an overlay of this refuge, with primary access to 112,000 acres and secondary access to another 738,000 acres as a “joint use” area. The relationship between the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not always been ideal, but the joint use habitat within the refuge has mostly survived intact.
With their current 20-year public lands withdrawal coming to an end, the Air Force must get approval from Congress to renew their withdrawal, but now they’re asking for primary access and control of the majority of the refuge.
The new legislative proposal, transmitted to Congress this week, would move the entirety of the joint use area into Air Force control, subject to a land management plan prepared by the Air Force. The Fish and Wildlife Service would have little say over how that habitat is managed. The legislation also brings an additional 250,000-300,000 acres under Air Force control, totaling more than 1 million acres of land that will generally be inaccessible to all except military personnel.
Costa's Hummingbird (Calypte costae) by Peter Pearsall / USFWS
What would be left? The southeast corner of the refuge, excluding the major mountain ranges and prime sheep habitat, representing a reduction in the size of the refuge from 1.6 million acres to less than a half million. This has implications for the entire region, if not the whole country; it would effectively remove 5% of refuge acreage in the continental United States from the Refuge System.
The Nevada legislature voted 58-3 last May in a bi-partisan, bi-cameral vote to oppose this plan, which is also opposed by ranchers, conservationists, hunters, and tribes. The Administration’s proposal to do exactly what Nevadans oppose is an outrageous overstep and flies in the face of the public interest. We call on Congress to reject this appalling proposal.